Thursday, May 16, 2019
Covera Health today announced a multi-year, strategic collaboration with Walmart designed to improve the quality of healthcare for eligible associates and their dependents, by helping them avoid misguided and unnecessary treatment based on inaccurate radiology diagnoses.
For years, many patients and health insurers have falsely assumed that there is no variability in the quality of radiological care between providers; as a result, imaging centers are often selected based on price or convenience. However, recent research has revealed how dramatically the accuracy of radiology exams, and the resulting diagnoses patients receive, can vary from one provider to the next.
According to Ron Vianu, CEO of Covera Health, “Getting an accurate diagnosis remains one of medicine’s greatest unmet needs. Not only does our program identify those providers and centers who are outperforming, objectively measuring quality enables us to deliver actionable feedback to help all providers perform better. Collaborating with Walmart expands our radiology program to improve care for millions of patients nationwide, which is the goal behind everything we do.”
In a blinded study, 10 radiology centers performed the same low-back MRI on a single 63-year-old patient.1 All 10 returned different diagnoses that could have resulted in vastly different treatment plans. Given the foundational nature of radiology in healthcare today, such mistakes often lead to patient harm by delaying the start of effective treatment, or by causing patients to undergo the wrong surgical procedures, which can negatively impact quality of life and outcomes. Multiple, independent studies have confirmed the adverse consequences of misdiagnoses.2,3 The Walmart-Covera Health collaboration marks the first substantial effort to systematically address these challenges.
“The goal of our benefit plans is to provide our associates and their family members with access to high-quality health care to ensure they receive the right care at the right time,” said Lisa Woods, Sr. Director of Benefits Design and Strategy at Walmart U.S. “A quality MRI or CT scan can improve the accuracy of the diagnosis early in the care journey, helping create the correct treatment plan with the best opportunity for recovery.”
Walmart associates and dependents on the company’s health plan now have access to Covera Health’s innovative Radiology Centers of Excellence Program, which features three main components: a nationwide network of superior radiologists; ongoing quality assurance and monitoring, with actionable feedback for doctors; and improved health outcomes for patients.
